Tomato Feta Quiche w/Basil & Sundried Tomatoes

by Rachel on March 7, 2011

Tomato Feta Quiche

I am, it appears, the Queen of Quiche. Unlike most Queenships, this is an unpaid position and entails a seemingly endless amount of kitchen scullery. I’m not sure how I went so wrong… Once you get the hang of it, quiches are frightfully easy to make and only take a few minutes to pull together. Thankfully my offspring, assorted neighbors and shoestring relatives seem not to mind eating quiche (LET THEM EAT QUICHE – I always say). It’s a good vegetarian meal to add to your rotation if you’re largely carnivorous, or just a good vegetarian meal if you’re a vegetarian. If you’re addicted to Trader Joe’s (just say yes, you know you are) all of the ingredients can be found there, you don’t even have to look very hard.

Heat olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Add the red onion and shallot and sauté until both are quite soft, 12 minutes. Take the onion/shallot mixture off the burner and allow it to cool slightly.

In a mixing bowl mix together the eggs, sour cream, half & half and the spices. Add the fresh or dried basil and the sundried tomatoes. Make sure your shallot/onion mixture is cool to the touch, once it is – add it to the egg mixture as well.

Put the defrosted piecrust into your pie pan. Press the crust into the pan. I find that frozen crusts when they defrost often break apart when you try to put them in the pan. Gently press the broken pieces together to form a complete crust. Don’t fret about the breakage, no one will notice or care once they taste your fabulous creation. Reduce the oven temp to 325 and put the piecrust into the oven for 12 minutes. The crust should just start to bubble, but not brown. Remove. If you don’t precook the crust it will be soggy, particularly a wet quiche like this one. My youngest son in particular despises soggy quiche and has been known to reprimand me if I don’t get my quiche bottoms nicely crisp. No joke. He’s quite the gourmand.

Gently mix the chopped tomatoes and feta into the egg/sour cream mixture. Pour into the lightly baked piecrust. Sprinkle the grated cheese over the top. Return the quiche to the oven and bake at 325 degrees until the quiche is set. This should take 45-55 minutes, depending on your oven. I often have to place a piece of foil loosely over the top of my quiches to keep the crust from browning before the inside of the quiche is done. Maybe that’s just me and yours will work out fine. If you see the crust getting too brown – you know what to do. I am not clairvoyant and I have to stick a knife into my quiche to test if it is cooked through. If you can tell whether a quiche is done without taking this step, bully for you. The rest of us will have to live with quiches that have small stab marks in the center. Serve warm, or cool to room temperature, refrigerate, and serve the next day at room temp.

Hey Rachel, very nice blog. Hadn’t visited in awhile. For this recipe what do you do with the shallots-and-red-onion mixture. Did I miss where you put them in? Probably in that last step? Also, you could try just putting a strip of the foil over the crust instead of the whole quiche. I do this for pies generally and it allows the pie to get nice and golden and shortens the baking time. I love quiche, so I’ll be trying this one! Thanks.

Hi Susan – apologies for letting those poor red onions and shallots sit idly by while the rest of the quiche was pulled together. I edited the post so that they are now in the mix, as it were. I’ve got lots of other quiche recipes coming. It’s a phase I’m going through. I hope you and yours are well. And thanks for the tip on the foil. I’m going to try that tomorrow!! Best, Rachel

made 4 of this quiche for a brunch meeting with 40 women…the bad news, was that there were NO LEFTOVERS for me to bring home! A home run for sure! I could not believe at how easy this was. Thanks a million, Rachel!

I made this quiche for a potluck we had over at our place yesterday with friends. It was eaten quite quickly and I got great compliments about it. Thank you for posting this recipe, and nice blog I’ll be trying a lot more of your food preparations in the coming weeks.

Really good! I used fat free sour cream, half & half & 4 eggs. The recipe called feta cheese with sun-dried tomatoes and basil. I used half of the feta cheese and put in chopped smoked sun-dried tomatoes (from a package not in a jar with oil) and fresh chopped organic basil. I didn’t have the Quatro Fromaggio Shredded Cheese Blend, I just used grated Cheddar Jack blend and Parmesan cheese.
I made my own olive oil GF crust, I added 1/2 tsp of garlic powder to make a more a savory crust.

This blog is dedicated to my parents who taught me that the family meal is a place for reflection, sharing of stories, and for connection. In our family it is a place of safety and certainty and quite frequently of hilarity. The food served by my parents is always made with care, creativity and generosity of spirit. I share their passion for cooking and their belief that the family meal is a critical anchor for all of us.

So, to both of my parents who celebrate life's ups and downs by laughing and lingering in the kitchen, this blog is for you.